Some people can see the bad in anything and that’s no way to live a happy life. If something you hear sounds bad, take a moment and wonder about the good in it. Your chances of seeing the good increase when you look for it.

Back in my corporate days, I remember the way some people reacted to Trish mentioning I was on a business trip. “Oh no, really?” as if the trip was a bad thing. A more positive view might have been, “You must miss him, but that sounds like a great adventure. Do you ever get to travel with him?”

Another time, a recruiter called me to find out if I would consider moving to another company. He asked me how much I was making and apparently it was more than he expected. He told me that companies pump up your salary to keep you stuck where you are.

What a terrible sales tactic. I should try to find a company that underpays me so I have more options? He might have had more luck if he’d said, “Good for you, they must really value you! It might be hard to find something better than that, but let’s talk about what opportunity might tempt you to move.”

What do you do to keep yourself seeing the good in things?